


Princess of poisons

by thegalrahobbitofplantetgalilfrey



Series: The Red Paladin's Double [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-13
Updated: 2016-12-13
Packaged: 2018-09-08 10:11:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8840572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegalrahobbitofplantetgalilfrey/pseuds/thegalrahobbitofplantetgalilfrey
Summary: Keith searches for a cure to a poison that is eaten by his teammate. But of course, they can't form Voltron without him...





	

  
Keith ran through a steamy jungle, jumping over roots and avoiding trees. He could hear the hot breathing of some large creature behind him, and ran faster. Why Shiana, he thought, why did you have to eat the suspicious fruit? He thought back to that morning. They had been in a crowded marketplace, and an old alien had come up with a fruit cart. He offered a piece of fruit to Shiana.  
“No, thank you. I don’t have any money,” politely refused Shiana.  
“Ah, but you may have it for free! My planet has fallen on rough times, and I am showing people some of the wondrous objects of my planet to open up trade! Take it, and spread the word!” Shiana had graciously accepted, and the old alien waddled away with his cart. Shiana took a bite and made a face.  
“No wonder his planet doesn’t have trade.” The others laughed. Then Shiana collapsed, writhing in agony. Keith rushed to her. Poison. He looked up and ran after the alien. He caught him and held him at sword point.  
“What did you do to my friend,” he snarled. The alien’s eyes glinted.  
“oooohhh, help! This hoodlum is attacking me! Help!” Keith did not relinquish his hold until the police of the planet came and pried him off, holding him while he struggled against them.  
“Alright, what happened?” The old alien played the victim very well  
“This… This… teenager jumped out of nowhere and attacked me for no reason!”  
“That’s not true! He poisoned my friend!” The policeman sighed.  
“What with?”  
“A piece of fruit! Let me go!” The policeman sighed again.  
“Did your friend accept the fruit?”  
“Huh?”  
“Did your friend accept the fruit?”  
“Yes. Why does that matter?”  
“If your friend accepted the fruit, then he or she accepted any responsibility for what might happen if he or she ate that fruit. Sorry kid, it’s the law. Unfortunately, we do have a law against attacking other inhabitants, so I’m gonna have to arrest you.”  
“Keith!” a somewhat familiar form was coming towards him. With a shock, Keith realized that it was Allura, sized up and looking like she could be Keith’s mother. Which, he realized, was the point.  
“Keith, have you been getting into fights again? Your father and I have made it quite clear that that sword is for defense only!” Allura reached them and gave the officer a brilliant smile. “So sorry officer! My son is very rambunctious and gets upset over the smallest things. Some food this gentleman sold us made one of his friends throw up and he overreacted. Very sorry. Could I just take him home, please? I promise his father and I will discipline him very hard.” The police officer scratched his head.  
“Well, unless the offended wants to press charges…” The old alien quickly put in his part as a benevolent old man.  
“No, no, of course not. I understand completely. Boys will be boys.” Allura took Keith by the arm and led him away.  
“What were you thinking,” hissed Allura, “attacking him?”  
“He poisoned Shiana! I had to do something!”  
“Yes, but not attack a citizen of the planet!” Coran had loaded Shiana into the castle, shivering and convulsing, and was examining her as they made a wormhole jump.  
“I haven’t ever seen a poison like this! I can’t find a record anywhere! We have no cure!” Keith shook his head. It was his fault. He never should have let Shiana eat that fruit. And now she was dying. Shiro picked Shiana up and carried her to her room, laying her in bed.  
“We’ll just have to hope for the best.” The alarm blared, and the two paladins rushed to the central command center. A Galra ship was on their radar. No… a whole fleet! How had they found them? Keith cursed silently. Of course. Shiro had never been checked for a tracking device.  
“All right. Today is not a good day, but we need to pull everything together. Paladins, to your lions!” Nobody moved. Hunk asked the question they were all thinking.  
“What’s the matter with Shiana?” Coran lowered his head.  
“I don’t know the poison, but it doesn’t look good.” The rest of the evil fruit landed in the middle of them. Shiana was at the door, pale, shivering and sweaty, but determined.  
“It… It’s a hybrid. This alien took lots of different poisonous plants and cross-pollinated them until this was created.” Shiro rushed to Shiana, steadying her as she threatened to topple.  
“You need to be in bed!” Shiana shook her head.  
“No. There… There is a plant that can cure all of the different poisons in this. Grows on a nearby planet. Looks like a bell, with lots of thorns. No machines work within a three-mile radius of it.” Shiana slid to the ground, exhausted. The paladins all started arguing over who should go after it.  
“Keith should!” volunteered Lance. Shiro shot him a warning glance.  
“No… good idea, Lance,” Shiana piped up from her place on the floor. She coughed. “If… If necessary, I can fly the red lion.” Shiro considered this option.  
“We can’t save her and fight off the Galra without splitting up,” chimed in Coran quietly. Shiro squeezed his eyes shut and nodded. Keith raced to the tiny spaceship, and Coran gave him the coordinates. He blasted off, while the Castle covered his descent. And that was how Keith had ended up in this God-forsaken jungle.  
Once landed, Keith walked around until a small device that bleeped, even though he didn’t know what it did, abruptly stopped working. Keith ran in that direction. It wasn’t long before arrows started raining down from the trees, and Keith was forced to pull up his shield and run. He could hear some creatures in the trees above him come down and give chase, still firing arrows. He could tell they were getting further away, and he smiled triumphantly. Then he tripped over a tree root and went sprawling on the ground. He cursed himself. Stupid, impulsive, not looking before I leap… everything the Garrison told me I needed to fix. He felt the point of a spear poke his back.  
“One wrong move, Galra, and I’ll run you through.”  
Keith was tied up very tightly and taken to a village, where they dragged him with a rope on his neck to their leader. “They” were small aliens that looked remarkably like hummingbirds  
“You are a Galra. Your kind are not welcome here. We will have to kill you.”  
“I’m just here for some medicine! I don’t want to conquer you! My friend… my friend is dying. I just need some of a plant, and then I will leave. Promise. And I’m only half Galra!” the leader stroked his head feathers.  
“Half Galra, half a chance. You have to avoid our beast for five hundred thousand ticks. No killing. If you survive, we will give you some of the plant and let you go. If not, well, you’ll be dead.” The bird-alien let out a loud warbling sound. All his people answered back in kind. They untied Keith and lowered him off the tree they were in, then pulled on strings and a gate opened up. Keith heard a growl emanate from a cave, and he didn’t stick around to meet its owner. And that was how Keith had gotten into his current situation. He wondered how the others were doing.  
Shiro smashed through a squadron of drones, but they just kept coming. He wished Keith was here so they could form Voltron, but he had made his choice. This was the only way to save Shiana.  
Shiana watched from a window, while pleading with Allura to let her join, but the Altean princess refused. The next time her back was turned, however, Shiana ran to the elevators and climbed into the red lion, blasting out the hanger doors.  
“Red lion ready.” Shiana felt as though she was going to drop at any moment, but she kept her voice strong.  
_You don’t sound too good._  
“I know, I know.”  
_If you drop dead, what am I supposed to do?_  
“I’m not gonna drop dead.”  
_That’s what you think._  
“Shiana, you shouldn’t be out here!”  
“I know, but you guys need help out here.” A blast of lasers hit her and she cursed as she reached for the controls. Too slow, too slow. Shiana’s head was spinning, but she managed to pull herself together and steer. She couldn’t see. Everything was blurry, and sounds were muffled.  
_Pull yourself together. I can’t do this by myself._ The red lion’s voice pulled Shiana back into reality. Red was right. She couldn’t afford to black out right now. She pulled back on the throttle and began fire.  
Keith leapt over a fallen log. Whatever that thing was, it was fast. He thought to the village. Hmmm… Whatever that thing was, the aliens were obviously safe in the trees. The next tree he came to instead of going around it, he swung up into the branches. His theory was correct. The animal couldn’t follow him. Then the tree started to shake. The creature was running into the tree, and it was going to fall. Keith looked at the next tree. Maybe… He jumped, soaring into the air and then slamming into the trunk, the wind knocked out of him, barely managing to grab onto a branch before he tumbled off. The creature abandoned the other tree, realizing his prey had moved. Keith cursed. Obviously this creature was not going to give up.  
Hunk looked up and saw missiles launched towards Shiana. The Galra had obviously figured that she was the weakest of them, and focused their attack on her. The missiles hit her and she went flying into space. Lance was already there and Shiro wasn’t far behind. Hunk continued to fire, covering the hurt lion.  
The whole cabin shook, and Shiana barely managed to stay in her seat. Red was not helping.  
_Come on. I haven’t been hit this hard since Allura’s rescue, and I was fighting Zarkon._  
“Will you please shut up and help me here?!”  
_just saying._  
“well stop.”  
Another blast of lasers hit her, and then the black and blue lions were there, destroying robots, protecting her. Shiana tried to thank them, but she couldn’t. her voice wasn’t working. Nothing was. She slumped unconscious on the dashboard.  
“Shiana? SHIANA!” Shiro heard no response from the red lion.  
“Lance! Get the red lion to her hanger. Get Shiana out! I’ll cover you!”  
Lance wrapped the blue lion’s front legs around the red lion and headed to the castle. Shiana couldn’t die! She couldn’t! Lance would never forgive himself for letting her eat that fruit if she died. He drove her into the hanger and landed both lions. Red looked worried, or as worried as a mechanical robot could look, and opened the door. Lance ran in.  
He found Shiana slumped over the controls, breathing fast and short.  
“Come on, don’t do this to me, Shiana.” Lance gently lifted her out of the seat, surprised at his own strength. He took off her helmet and her hair tumbled out. Her face was so, so pale. She mumbled something that sounded like “No Lance, I do not want to go out with you.” Or maybe that was Lance’s imagination. He carried her out of her lion, where Coran and Allura were waiting. Coran took her from Lance and looked down at her still face, worried.  
“I hope Keith can find that flower.”  
Keith had been playing the tree jump game for a while, but he was tiring quickly. The next tree he jumped to, the branch he landed on snapped, and he fell through the branches. Somehow he landed on the back of the animal. It reared in surprise, and he rolled off, dazed. It snorted and looked down at him. The creature backed up, ready to charge.  
“TIME!” The monster froze, and the bird-people came, hurrying it off. Keith sighed in relief as he climbed to his feet. The leader came up to him.  
“well done. You are free to go. He handed Keith an odd flower and clapped him on the back. “You could be one of us the way you jumped through the trees.” Keith was already gone.  
Lance blasted Galra, his anger fueling him. His teammates fought like demons, determined to protect the castle and Shiana. He saw a small spaceship blast off from the planet, and recognized it as Keith’s. He saw the Galra all aim their blasters at him. No… The Galra all fired, but the small spaceship rolled and ducked the blasts. Quiznek, that boy could fly. The other lions covered the small ship as it slid into the castle and quickly defeated the rest of the fleet. They all soared into the castle and raced to the sick bay. Coran had juiced the flower and Keith was holding Shiana’s limp hand. They ran over as Coran poured the tincture into her mouth and she swallowed. And coughed. Some color returned to her face and she opened her eyes. Relief was evident on all the paladin’s faces.  
“Ugh. That tasted worse than the poison.” Lance smiled. Everything would be alright.  
“How dare you! You told me the poison would kill one and I could easily defeat them! But you lied!” The old alien at his knees panicked.  
“No! No! Lord Zarkon, it wasn’t my fault! They are stronger than it was thought! Blame your witch!” Zarkon looked coldly at the groveling alien at his feet.  
“No mercy.” Zarkon made a gesture and sentries carried away the alien, screaming. The sound of a laser shot was heard and the screaming stopped

**Author's Note:**

> Watch out for part 4


End file.
